Patients & Carers United Against Closure Of Edale Hospital Unit

The first baby born in the NHS now fighting to save the NHS!

‘I was the first baby born in a National Health Service hospital. The 5th July 1948 at two minutes past midnight in North Manchester Hospital. My dad used to say if I had come 5 minutes earlier then I would have cost a shilling. That is what it was before we had the NHS, you had to put aside a shilling a week.’

June Catterall has worked in the Health Service all her life. At Stepping Hill and Hyde Hospitals, and at Withington psychiatric hospital.

‘I was also mobile warden for Social Services in Gorton for nine years. I used to work far more than I should have. If some one needed help I was always there. Over the years it got more difficult. The cuts made it harder. I got upset over the cuts,’ she said.

‘I used to do three shifts and look after three kids. It takes its toll. In the end the stress got to me and I had a breakdown.’ June became a patient. ‘I got fantastic treatment,’ she said.

June was out on the street last week campaigning outside the MRI hospital in Manchester, petitioning to save the psychiatric unit Edale House, which is now threatened with closure.

Edale House is a purpose built psychiatric unit built under using the PFI financial scheme. Now the Trust says it is too expensive and must be shut. Patients who live in the central Manchester area would in future have to travel to North Manchester or to Wythenshawe in the south to receive treatment. It would be much more difficult for family and friends to visit.

‘Its just a cost cutting exercise,’ explained Pat Wheeldon,’ who is the founder member of the focus group which supports carers and patients. ‘We have 70 members in our group.’ she said.

Patients with mental health conditions who need treatment, care and support, are being squeezed from both sides by the cuts.

As well as health cuts, social services are also being cut. ‘Outreach teams are going in January,’ explained Pat, who is a carer for her son who has a dual diagnosis.

People were queuing to sign petitions and lend support on the campaign stall outside Manchester’s largest hospital MRI. Health campaigners will be joining with those fighting the savage cuts to adult social care made by Manchester City Council next week. Some are travelling to London for the Unite the Resistance Conference.

‘I believe we all must come under the same umbrella where we can be clearly seen by everyone to be 100% behind the NHS,’ said Paul Reed, from the Manchester Users Network, one of the patient groups central to the fight to save Edale House

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”